Autothermal steam reforming of glycerol for hydrogen production over packed-bed and Pd/Ag alloy membrane reactors

Abstract In this study, glycerol, with its high H/C ratio feature, was steam reformed with oxygen to produce hydrogen in packed-bed and Pd/Ag membrane reactors. The addition of oxygen, which causes the partial oxidation, was to achieve thermal neutral for the energy saving purposes. Ni/CeO 2 /Al 2 O 3 catalyst was used to catalyze the reforming reaction at varying temperature, WHSV, WGMR and O 2 /C 3 H 8 O 3 ratios. In the packed-bed runs, the glycerol conversion achieved to 99.56% at temperature of 973 K, WHSV of 5 h −1 , WGMR of 9 and O 2 /C 3 H 8 O 3 of 0.15. Moreover, the best hydrogen yield was 85.26% at conditions of 773 K, WHSV of 5 h −1 , WGMR of 9 and O 2 /C 3 H 8 O 3 of 0.15. Besides, the Pd/Ag alloy membrane was also employed for comparative purposes. In the Pd/Ag membrane reactor runs, the results shows that glycerol conversion increased with increasing pressure, but the hydrogen yield also declined. The thermal dynamic simulation is also done with MATLAB software.